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Abstract

In small commuter category aircraft, the control surfaces viz., Aileron, Elevator and Rudder are operated using mechanical flight control system consisting of elements like push-pull rods, cables, pulleys, quadrants, etc. There is a considerable reduction in stiffness of the flight control circuit due to the stretch in these elements, resulting in control surface deflections lesser than desirable values. This paper focuses on the application of Finite Element Analysis (FEA) in design, analysis and optimization of flight control circuits of a typical Light Transport Aircraft (LTA) using FEA software Altair Hypermesh and MSC Nastran. Various Finite Element Modeling techniques have been extensively used in this study to simulate the control circuit mechanisms that exist on the aircraft. The stiffness and stretch values obtained from the analysis are in good agreement with the experimental results obtained from ground tests conducted on the LTA. The methodology proposed in this paper minimizes the time and effort in designing and implementing an optimum control circuit, and also eliminates the need for extensive ground testing.